The Approaching Curve

This one shot was originally supposed to be an Eric/Sookie pairing. However, it evolved into a non-specific fandom…thing. I have a thing about writing short stories where characters aren’t named. So, imagine whichever leads you want and I’m sorry. You’ll see why.

If you’ve ever heard the Rise Against song The Approaching Curve, you’ll know. But this fic is based around that song, lyrics are bold and italicized.

Disclaimer: Rise Against holds sole rights to this song. No copyright infringement intended.

The music played with a calming frequency.The speakers gently seeped the sound of ambient keyboards and light percussion,Creating a seductive soundtrack to our midnight drive through curtains of blackness.The windows were cold to the touch, Reflecting the icy conditions in our immediate extremity.Salt stains and fingerprints littered the glass, And streaks of melting snow cascaded down its length.The music pulsed louder, yet gentle, Like the far away squeal of a pot of boiling water.The skyline was glowing faintly with vague hints of an impending dawn.The car raced along a painfully straight stretch of road,And she hadn’t so much as turned the steering wheel two degrees in the last twenty minutesNor had we spoken.

It’d been hours; hours trapped in the stifling interior of the car. The sun had long since set, the orange and pinks of twilight painting her face with color. The frown she wore didn’t detract from the beauty of the scene, only added to its tragic tale.

The sun’s descent into nothingness as the moon and stars twinkled into existence were all splashed across her beautiful face; the cycle of day and night, birth and rebirth, life and death.

But I couldn’t make a sound. Not since that conversation so many hours ago. Not since her tears had dried and her voice had cracked with pain. Not since my heart had long since stopped in my chest, shattering into a million tiny pieces of my own despair.

As we were, so perfect, so happy.They’ll remember, only our smiles ’cause that’s all they’ve seen.Long since dried, when we are found, are the tears in which we had drowned.As we were, so perfect, so happy.

I sighed as I thought of our house, the walls splashed with a mockery of our happiness. Every highlight of our lives together displayed in bright colored photos, all glaring at our-my-failure.

Our bedroom, where we’d slept last night, curled around each other. The bathroom she’d taunted me about when I’d installed our huge jacuzzi bathtub, poking fun at my monstrously long limbs. The kitchen I’d redone just for her, surprising her after a week-long trip to her parents. She’d been overcome with joy-her eyes sparkling with happy tears as she jumped up to wrap her legs around my waist.

And now none of it mattered.

“Why are you doing this?” she spoke as if not expecting a response.Her voice penetrated the still air of our speechless drive, So suddenly that my heart had jumped.“I’m not doing anything,” I said, but I didn’t even believe that myself.“This is what’s best, for me, for you, for us,” or maybe just for me I thought,As a tear formed in the pit of her eye. The music poured through the speakers and we were losing ourselves in the cadence. She looked down momentarily and closed her eyes for a bit longer than a standard blink. Then she was crying. Then she was shouting. Then I was shouting, Now pouring confessions, having no answers, or solutions,We barely even knew the questions.

Her head nodded along to the music as the tears gathered once again. I knew the signs; she’d been thinking for hours.

And then her voice broke the air, a slight catch as she sobbed out her question. My fingers tightened on the door handle and I bit my tongue to stem the flow of useless words threatening to spill.

Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel, her teeth grinding audibly in time to the beat of the music. Then the silence was shattered as a shrill cry ripped it’s way out of her throat. I tried to stay calm, though I know I failed. Our words mixed and melded together, biting and digging out painful memories as we screamed.

Every hurt, every slight, every minute trauma we’d suffered were now being inflicted all over again by the one person we’d promised to love. And to them as well. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t deny or defend-so I went for the kill.

As we were, so perfect, so happy.They’ll remember, only our smiles ’cause that’s all they’ve seen.Long since dried, when we are found, are the tears in which we had drowned.As we were, so perfect, so happy.

It was a Tuesday when I proposed. It was nothing grand or spectacular; but it was us, plain and simple.

Netflix was playing in the background-some movie that a coworker had recommended-and we’d been making dinner together. She turned to go to the refrigerator and I just grabbed her. She giggled, the sound lifting my heart and my confidence. And I had asked; she’d said yes, and we’d laughed and danced.

I still remember it like it was yesterday. That was one of the best days of my life.

Don’t put me underground, I was meant for a life somewhere else.Please, love, give me the wheel, before both of our hearts youWill steal tonight

The trees whipped past us faster and faster, blurring into a continuous ocean of blackness. The tires gripped the road painfully, shrieking at the ice below. I watched the speedometer creep up further and further as her foot pressed down harder. My fingers tightened their grip on the door, my breath fogging the glass as I glanced out the window.As we were, so perfect, so happy.Don’t remember, only your smiles ’cause that’s all they’ve seen.Long since dried, when we are found, are the tears in which we had drowned.As we were, so perfect, so happy.

Our cracking voices became part of the music.The car pressed on faster through the night. As our voices lowered,The cadence again overtook the air.Up ahead there was a curve approaching.She made no indications of slowing.

My head wrenched forward as I saw the turn. I looked over to her, my breath catching as I caught sight of her. Her head bowed, tears streaming down her cheeks, and her hands in her lap.

The car swerved dangerously as we approached the curve and my voice mingled with the wind screaming outside. And then we were flying.